In electronic networks, an element performing a data processing function may fail. In anticipation of this, it is common to provide a backup element to take over the data processing function of the first element should it fail. Thus, a failover function is provided.
A method of providing router redundancy in a wide area network is known. Each of two routers receives performance parameter data relating to the other router. If this data is not received when expected, or if the data indicates that a presently inactive router has a higher performance than an active router, the active router is switched to become the inactive router and vice versa.
It is desirable to provide improvements in relation to failover processing.